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Spreading Positive Vibrations Issue No 75 – Jun 2013 Published by Prime Point Foundation
Man of the Month
In this Issue:
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Editorial
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Launch of 75th edition – Report
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Man of the Month – Cover story PRince
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Chhattisgarh Chief Minister receiving PRince cartoons
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Milestones in the Journey of the Ezine
P14 PRince Toon
Contact www.corpezine.com editor@corpezine.com
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From the Desk of Editor-in-Chief The editorial team is extremely delighted to publish this landmark issue, which is the 75th edition of your ezine. In this edition, we cover the milestones in the journey of the ezine. A video presentation, produced by us in this regard, is also included as a link. Our exclusive cartoon character Prince, with his lively sense of humour, has always been an icon of status to the ezine.
This is a symbolic gesture to convey the importance of handing over the baton to the next generation to encourage them take up the leadership role in every sphere of life. “The old order changeth, yielding place to new� (Lord Alfred Tennyson). The editorial team thanks all the readers for their sustained support and guidance. We also assure our readers that we will continue in our endeavour to provide high quality contents in the future too.
This prestigious edition was released by young professionals and students at three different centres simultaneously, viz. Chennai, Coimbatore and Motihari (Bihar).
Proudly dedicates this Platinum Jubilee (75th) Edition of the Ezine to
Indian Youth Since our cartoon character PRince is the Youth icon, we are carrying the cover story on PRince as Man of the Month. Also this edition was launched by youth at 3 places in India simultaneously on 23rd June 2013 at 3 PM
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Simulataneous launch of 75th edition at 3 places by youth The Platinum Jubilee (75th) Edition of your Ezine PreSense was launched simultaneously at 3 places viz. Chennai, Coimbatore and Motihari-Bihar by youngsters India has now become an young nation with nearly 60% of the youth population. While the milestones editions were released by nationally well known personalities, Editorial team decided to launch this 75th edition through youngsters at different places and to dedicate this edition toIndian Youth.
The launch of the 75th edition was similtaneously done on 23rd June 2013 at 3.00 PM at different centres by youth. At Chennai, Nisha Thotta, Abdul Ghani and Hari Balaji, leaders of youth group ‘YouThink’ launched the (a) 75th edition of ezine (b) ebook on past PRince cartoons and (c) Dropbox link for all the past ezines. Nearly 100 youngsters and many seniors attended the event. This was followed with an interaction session on ‘Social Media challenges’. Experts from Cyber Society of India clarified the various points raised by youngsters on the security of ATM cards, online banking, social media, etc. At the same time, Vajresh Balaji, a student at Coimbatore launched the ezine PreSense, ebookof PRince cartoons and the dropbox link in the presence of young students in an orphanage. Munnakumar and his friends of Khwab Foundation launched the ezine at that time at Motihari, Bihar in the presence of youngsters. They followed the launch with an interaction sesssion on India Vision 2020.
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Cover Story The Interesting Story of Cartoon Character, PRince The cute little cartoon character, PRince has been adding value and humour to your ezine, PreSense for the past five years. He has been conveying powerful messages with a sense of humour. The creation and the journey of PRince is interesting and amazing. In July 2008, on Dr Abdul Kalam’s suggestion, the editorial team decided to introduce cartoons in the ezine. When we made an announcement to the effect in the PrPoint group, Mr Triambak Sharma, a well-known cartoonist from Raipur and the editor of Cartoonwatch (picture on left) volunteered to provide cartoons for the ezine every month. Instead of publishing regular assorted cartoons, the editorial team decided on a cartoon character, on the lines of R K Laxman’s ‘Comman Man’, to convey the message. On 3rd July 2008, the editorial team made an announcement about its idea, in the groups, and invited suggestions from the members, and also a suitable name for the character. The team received an overwhelming response of 100 suggested names. The suggestion given by Ms Uma, a communication professional to name the character ‘PRince’ received unanimous approval of the editorial team. ‘Prince’ was introduced to the groups on 10th July 2008. (picture on right – screen shot of announcement in the group) “I wanted PRince to be the youth icon of this 21st century, as a representative of the professionals working in corporate and other offices. Hence, I created him as an energetic young person a wearing trendy outfit with necktie. I am proud that PRince was born in Raipur”, says Triambak Sharma proudly. The first cartoon, created by Triambak Sharma, was launched by Dr Abdul Kalam himself with his autograph, on 24th July 2008 at Rajbhavan, Chennai (picture on the left). The cartoon character was created and launched within 20 days of the editorial team’s decision to include the cartoon in the ezine. Every edition of the ezine from July 2008 onwards contains the PRince cartoon. In every issue, PRince conveyed a powerful message with a sense of humour. Thus, PRince won itself many fans. PRince became popular worldwide. In April 2010, The Wall Street Journal of America, carried one of the PRince cartoons with the permission of Triambak Sharma. (picture on the left) The popularity of PRince grew day by day, both nationally and internationally.
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In May 2010, a CD containing the PRince cartoons was released on the occasion of the launch of the Golden Jubilee edition (50 th) of ezine. it was also displayed on the internet. PRince who was a Casanova till then, married his sweetheart ‘PRincess’ in the Diamond Jubilee 60th edition, published in February 2011 (picture on the right). “Only married people can understand the problems of the common person and communicate in a mature manner. Subsequent to his marriage, PRince started talking about many serious issues affecting the common citizen”, says Triambak Sharma when asked why PRince married hastily. The readers could notice that after the 61st edition, PRince conveyed more serious messages than what he used to, before his marriage. Interestingly, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam himself is one of the great fans of PRince. While addressing the Cartoon Festival at New Delhi on 29th April 2011, Dr Abdul Kalam suggested that cartoonists should be remembered for creating cartoon characters like ‘Common Man’ and ‘PRince’. (screenshot of his message on the left) While Mumbai can be proud of ‘Common Man’ created by R K Laxman, Raipur can now be proud of Triambak’s ‘PRince’.
Watch the video presentation on the ‘Story of cartoon character PRince’
http://youtu.be/vLXWCihUqT0
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Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh lauds cartoon character PRince
Triambak Sharma, Cartoon Editor of your ezine PreSense organised a Cartoon Festival at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) on 29th June 2013. Dr Raman Singh was the Chief Guest. A video poresentation on the cartoon character PRince was shown to the Hon’ble Chief Minister and to the audience. A CD containing the past 55 cartoons published in the ezine from July 2008 to June 2013 was also handed over to Dr Raman Singh, the Chief Minister by Triambak Sharma. The Chief Minister highly appreciated the concept of cartoon character and enjoyed the PRince cartoons.
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Download link for Past 75 editions of ezine PreSense Ebook on past PRince cartoons Video presentation on ezine and PRince http://goo.gl/5zTJC
Media Partnership
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Milestones in the Journey of the E-Zine The Launch of Prime Point Foundation In December 1999, Prime Point Foundation was started with the objective of creating awareness about communication among the corporate management, professionals and students, specialising in communication. For the past over a decade since then, the Foundation has been spreading awareness not only about communication, but also about several significant social issues. The Foundation was launched by noted agricultural scientist Dr M S Swaminathan and then Indian Bank Chairman Mr T S Raghavan. Seminar on New Media in 2000 In July 2000 itself, even before the concept of the Internet gained recognition in the common lives in India, the Foundation organised a seminar for the media and as well as for corporate professionals, and the theme of the seminar was ‘the role that internet media would play’. At that time, many in the media and outside did not anticipate that internet media would grow to the extent that it has today. Prof. Sreenath Sreenivasan, Dean, Columbia University spoke on this subject. Launch of an Online Newsletter In early 2000s, there were few printed magazines on ‘Communication and Management’ to cater to corporate professionals and students. Most of the foreign magazines were too expensive for the Indian market. Against this background, in the year 2002, the Foundation decided to launch an online newsletter to update the professionals and the students on communication- and managementrelated news and knowledge. The first online newsletter named PRPoint Newsletter, was published in March 2002. It contained an exclusive interview with Mr. Frank M. Shediac, an American communication professional from Hongkong. He spoke on the subject, “Business to Business, or B2B Public Relations”. Within the following trimester, the Foundation published eight editions of the newsletter, covering varied themes, with interviews. The interviews for these editions were arranged through email correspondence. The newsletters were distributed online through auto responders. Shortcomings in PRPoint Newsletter During this experimental period of the online newsletter, the editions contained articles on themes, which were not quite contemporary but of visionary nature. For example, the newsletter covered an article about the emergence of blogs when blogs were not popular at that time. Hence, PRPoint Newsletter failed to sustain the interest of many readers as it did not cover contemporary themes and technology. The newsletter was discontinued after 8 issues.
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Plans to Re-launch the Ezine Learning from the shortcomings, the Foundation decided to re-launch the e-zine, with the focus on contemporary themes, which most of the readers could understand and relate to. In February 2006, deliberations on the action plan for re-launch, were held with selected young and emerging communication professionals. The team decided to re-launch the e-zine under the name, PReSense. In the new format, a contemporary topic of interest to professionals and students, was the highlight of the e-zine every month. The e-zine used a simpler technology than that used earlier, and its file size of less than 500 Kilobytes in PDF format, found easier upload and edelivery. Launch of the First Edition of PReSense It was an uphill task to find a suitable and willing interviewee to feature in the first edition of the relaunched e-zine. Nobody was interested in giving an interview for the little recognised e-zine, struggling in its nascent stage. The editorial team confided about this challenge to Dr. Y. S. Rajan, the then Principal Advisor to CII, and co-author with Dr Abdul Kalam, of the book, ‘India 2020’. Dr. Rajan readily consented to give an interview. Mr. B. Suresh Kamath, the then Chairman of the company, Laser Soft Infosystems Ltd, followed suit. Within a fortnight of the deliberations, the first edition of the e-zine, PReSense was launched online on the 6th of March, 2006, by Dr. Y. S. Rajan. This marked the beginning of the revived and renewed journey of PreSense. First Edition to 75th Edition – a Challenging Journey 75 issues of PReSense, featuring thematic subjects, have been published till the current month of June 2013. The editions are released on the first of every month consistently. Based on the feedback, the editorial team continues to improve upon the quality of the e-zine to cater to the net-savvy audience of readers. Today, PReSense is recognised as a pioneer in the ezine world for its high standards in its contents, as well as for its reach and usability. Integration of Podcasts from Aug 2006 The concept of Podcasts emerged in early 2006. Against this backdrop, the editorial team of PReSense introduced the concept of interviews in audio and video podcasts in the e-zine. From its August 2006 edition onwards, the e-zine published the text of interviews, with links to the corresponding podcasts, for the audio as well as video recordings of the interviews.
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Introduction Guest Editors from August 2007 The editorial team introduced guest editors from its August 2007 edition onwards. PReSense has had the privilege of being guest edited by several eminent personalities like Mr. T. S. Krishnamurthy, Mr. N. Vittal, Dr. Y. S. Rajan, as well as presidents of international organisations like Institute of Public Relations of Singapore, Public Relations Society of America, Chartered Institute of Public Relations, London and Public Relations Institute of South Africa. Young professionals and students were also given the opportunity to guest-edit the e-zine, to give them the experience of writing and editing for the electronic medium.
Change of Masthead in February 2008 In February 2008, with PReSense completing two years in its revived form, it underwent another reform with the change in its masthead and the layout, to make it appear savvier to the readers. PReSense had the privilege and honour of carrying an exclusive interview with Dr. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, in its second anniversary issue. The second anniversary issue was released by Mr. N. Vittal, Former Central Vigilance Commissioner of India. The association of these eminent personalities with the e-zine enhanced its prevailing credibility among the readers.
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Invitation to become Media Partner PreSense continued to win increasing recognition among the literary and corporate readers and in April 2008, several international organisations approached the editorial team for the association of PReSense as media partner in global events. Normally, only print and television media are preferred by international organisations for media partnership. For the first time in the world, an ezine, viz. PReSense became the media partner for the international conferences organised by Chartered Institute of Public Relations at London in UK, and by Public Relations Society of America at Detroit in USA. Thereafter, the e-zine was invited to be the media partner for several other international conferences held in different countries. Introduction of Cartoons from July 2008 On the suggestion of Dr. Abdul Kalam, PReSense introduced cartoons in its July 2008 edition. Mr Triambak Sharma, a noted cartoonist and editor of Cartoonwatch, a cartoon magazine at Raipur, created a new cartoon character, PRince. PRince was launched in PReSense by Dr Abdul Kalam himself at Rajbhavan, Chennai. Featuring PRince Cartoon regularly in its monthly editions, PReSense has published 55 PRince cartoons, highlighting topical themes, till the current month of June 2013. In April 2010, The Wall Street Journal reproduced one of the PRince cartoons with the permission of the Editor. This gesture attests the popularity of the e-zine at the global level. Change in Layout in September 2008 The layout of PReSense changed again in September 2008, with the introduction of the photograph of the Guest Editor on the cover page. This gesture proved to be an incentive for many budding professionals, who volunteered to be guest editors for PReSense. Some of the absorbing topics covered in PReSense include corporate arrogance, corporate idiosyncrasies, education loan, business communication, corporate governance, internal communication, Social media, and media relations. These topics aroused the curiosity and interest among many of its readers. Awards PReSense has won several awards, accrediting the high quality of its contents and its popularity among its readers. It has won awards from Global Forum for Public Relations, Public Relations Council of India and Association of Business Communicators of India. Social Initiatives of the E-zine In March 2010, PReSense set up Education Loan Task Force, ELTF, jointly with India Vision Group, to guide students about education loan and support the case of deserving students, aggrieved about education loan sanction. Thousands of students across the country have benefitted from this social initiative.
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Awards to Lok Sabha MPs Coinciding with the commemoration of the Golden Jubilee PreSense in May 2010, Prime Point Foundation and PreSense instituted the Sansad Ratna Awards to honour top performing Lok Sabha Members of Parliament. The 50th edition of PReSense was launched at the Awards’ function by Mr. T. S. Krishna Murthy and Mr. N. Gopalaswamy, Former Chief Election Commissioners of India. A Compact Disc or CD, containing the past 50 editions of the e-zine, PRince cartoons and connected podcasts was also released. Diamond Jubilee Edition of E-zine in Feb 2011 In February 2011, the Diamond Jubilee edition of the ezine, with its theme as Achievers, was released. In that edition, PReSense carried an exclusive podcast interview with Dr. Subramanian Swamy on the theme ‘perseverance’. In a lighter vein, the cartoon character, PRince, who had till then been enjoying the company of girl friends, married his cartoon companion, PRincess in this edition. With the Diamond Jubilee edition, PreSense completed five years of its uninterrupted journey. Brief Break after 5 years of Continuous Journey Soon thereafter, the team deliberated over the challenges of sustaining the quality of the ezine within the format of its contents, especially the themes, which had to be unique and varied, to cater to an audience that was niche. At this stage, the editorial team decided on a hiatus for the e-zine, to take time to plan a revised format that will cater to a larger and more diverse audience. Re-starting the Journey with 61st Edition in New Format The editorial team resumed PreSense in April 2012 with the 61st edition, coinciding with the Sansad Ratna Awards 2012 to the top performing MPs. The tag line ‘Communicate the Communication’ used in the first 60 editions of the e-zine was changed to ‘Spreading Positive Vibrations’. Though the masthead continued to be the same, the name of the e-zine was changed from “PR–e–Sense” (while reading, PR pause e pause sense) to Pre–Sense (while reading, Pre pause Sense).
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The format of the contents of the e-zine changed in its 62nd edition and the e-zine still continues in the revised format. The PreSense edition carries a cover story featuring ‘Man of the Month’, an historical event coinciding with the month of release, ancient Indian wisdom, a ‘controversy of the month’ based on a topical controversy, featuring of an unsung hero under ‘Ignited Minds’, social issues, PRince cartoon highlighting a contemporary issue, and interesting information from the archives of earlier editions of PreSense. The new format has interested a larger audience of readers. The contents cater to readers of different agegroups. PreSense is widely shared through emails and the social media. Tamil Nadu Governor launching Special Edition of E-zine In April 2013, the 73rd edition of PreSense, with a special feature on the Indian Parliament, was launched by the Tamil Nadu Governor, Dr. Rosaiah. The event coincided with the presentation of the Sansad Ratna Awards 2013. Platinum Jubilee Edition Dedicated to Indian Youth The Platinum Jubilee, hallmarking the 75th edition of PreSense, is another mile-stone in the journey of the ezine. This edition is dedicated to the Indian youth. In order to impress upon the nation of the need for empowering youth, this edition is being launched by the youth at various centres on the 23 rd of June 2013. The journey of the e-zine, PreSense continues, spreading positive vibrations among the readers, and supporting the silent achievers.
Watch the video presentation on the ‘Milestones in the journey of the ezine’
http://youtu.be/w4xnOzdQ71Y
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Presenters of PreSense Editorial Team
K. Srinivasan
V. Rajendran
Susan Koshy
Triambak Sharma
Sukruti A Vadula
Editorial Advisors
V. Ponraj
Jhon A
Published by Prime Point Foundation Feedback and sponsorship editor@corpezine.com Past issues may be downloaded from www.prpoint.com www.primepointfoundation.org www.corpezine.com Listen to India’s first pod-magazine www.poduniversal.com one stop shop for podcasts on all subjects
Awards
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